310 The Diseases of Animals 
Seek and remove the cause. Foreign bodies can 
often be removed by wiping the surface of the eyeball 
with a soft silk handkerchief. Lime should be washed 
out with an abundance of warm water. Then bathe 
the eye with cold water, apply cold cloths or bags of ice 
till the inflammation is reduced. If, however, inflam- 
mation should persist, bathing the eye with hot water 
three times daily for twenty minutes at a time is to be 
recommended. Following this, apply a few drops of a 
solution of borie acid, one dram in three ounces of 
water, twice daily with a dropper. 
Periodic Ophthalmia, “ Moon Blindness” 
Moon blindness is a periodic inflammation of the 
deeper structures of the eye of horses. Its cause is 
not known, although it is generally believed to be 
produced by germs or parasites. It was formerly 
thought that the changes of the moon caused this 
disease, but this is wholly erroneous. Mares afflicted 
with it should not be bred, as the disease tends to be 
hereditary. 
There is inflammation resembling simple ophthalmia, 
except that the surface of the eyeball is not so irri- 
tated; but the deeper struetures are more clouded, 
there is a profuse discharge of tears, the lids are 
swollen and are kept partially closed to shield from 
the light, the eyeball is very sensitive and appears to 
bulge outward. The inflammation subsides in a week 
or two; the eye clears up, or nearly so; but there re- 
mains around the iris a slight yellow band, which 
